I received a tweet this week from someone that follows me on twitter, saying that I complain too much about public transport. It made my smile but not smile enough to favourite it. I replied to the tweet saying that I have every right to and that if you don’t complain, nothing changes. A standard answer to a confronting tweet but let me explain.
I have very high expectations of myself as a professional in everything that I do in my job. I think people want the best and so I try to deliver the best. If I fall short of my expectations, then I’m OK with that. I’ll go back the following day and go again. The point is, I tried my best because I care about what I do and I want to deliver the best service to people, whether I’m on the telly or the radio or organising a cheese and wine party. (I’ve never done this but I fully intend to in 2015).
Which brings me nicely on to the subject of Public Transport. I was waiting for a bus the other day from Hollingbury in to town to get a connecting train to Worthing. The bus simply didn’t turn up. So I tweeted Brighton and Hove Bus Company to ask what had happened to the No.26 service. Their reply astounded me. They were short of bus drivers, so the bus simply didn’t leave the garage.
So in terms of my job, it’s the equivalent of me phoning my manager to say I’m sick and my boss just shrugging his shoulders and deciding that no-one’s getting any radio that afternoon. ‘Due to the lack of presenters, we’ll have four hours of silence between 3-7pm this afternoon. Thank you for your understanding.’ Here’s a tip Brighton and Hove buses; if you haven’t got enough bus drivers, perhaps hire some more.
It was reported today that five hundred trains have been cancelled in the last week on the Southern Rail Network because of ‘staff training and sickness.’ What? Come again? Isn’t the training pre-planned and again, with sickness, quite a common theme this time of year, if someone has a cold, does that mean hundreds of commuters can’t get to work?
And also, having compared my job as a kind of public service (you’re welcome) to public transport, there is one significant difference. You are paying a lot of money for your bus and train passes (if you’re paying to listen to me on the radio, someone has set up a racket and I want a cut). I assume you pay in good faith. With the assumption you’ll get a good service. And if your not, what will you do about it?
A tweet won’t start a revolution but it’s better than being a passive aggressive Brit, sitting on a lonely platform, wishing you were Danish.